Foundation One Discussion Forum- Cohort 22

[Lilia Kapsali]

When I think of being connected to nature, the words that come to mind are alert, alive, curious, sensory, inspired and whole. When I go out in nature, I feel my senses come online, and the focus moves from the thoughts in my head to what’s happening around me; the birdsong, the temperature of the air, the feeling of sunshine and wind on my skin, the colors and scents of the plants and trees, the movement of squirrels, birds and insects. This helps me feel relaxed, at peace and in tune with my surroundings. In the Coyote’s Guide, this sensory awareness is described as part of our natural birthright which helped our ancestors survive, what modern science now calls part of the “eight intelligences” (p.28). To be nature connected is therefore to tap into ways of experiencing reality and of learning that are older and broader than the ones we typically use in urban settings and institutions today.

This sensory awareness also makes me feel very present, as my attention shifts from thoughts of past and future to what’s happening right now. Harper describes a quality of mindfulness when one is in the wilderness, which he calls “attentiveness” (p.189). He later goes on to talk about a feeling of timelessness, which I seldom experience on my daily walks unless I spend some time meditating in the company of trees, but which I did experience the first time I went to the Bornean rainforest as a volunteer research assistant at a remote location. I remember calling my brother from camp and excitedly trying to describe to him an altered, expanded sense of time I was experiencing. Nature connection brings one back to the present moment, away from fears of the future or memories of the past. This attentiveness can support coaching by enabling the client to let go of the anxieties and worries of everyday life which block one’s awareness of creative solutions, and to focus on listening to their inner voice, as well as to the insights which come when one’s nervous system is grounded. Becoming attentive and learning to listen deeply to nature allows for discernment with respect to one’s internal feelings as Miles describes (p.46), and as I experienced when practicing the 7 breaths exercise (I had to pay close attention to discern what I was feeling). This foundation of deep listening and quiet can then be built on to elicit client-oriented goals based on desirable modes of being (to create more of what inspires, what excites, what heals, what rejuvenates).

Connection with nature is also experienced as a personal, emotional bond, a relationship where I paradoxically feel seen and supported by the natural beings around me. When my mother died, I discovered that spending time in nature helped me, especially experiencing all the ways in which nature was very much alive and thriving despite my grief, existential crisis and stuckness. I also felt unjudged and yet not lonely among trees and other beings, because I felt they accepted me as I was, at a time when I struggled to put my experience into words for other humans. I ended up thinking of nature as Mother, a presence who could hold my pain and comfort me when I needed it most, which interestingly enough led me to re-examine my relationship with my actual mother and understand my feelings of complicated grief. This reminds me of the story Harper describes of the woman who needed to feel and express her fear about her identity loss as her children left home, and realizing through the experience that the earth under her feet was grounding her and supporting her (p.193). Nature connection enables us to stay grounded and accept the ebbs and flows of life, with all the positive and negative experiences and emotions it harbors (birth, death, loss, bliss, fear etc), because nature is all-encompassing and wild, without labeling anything as good or bad. In terms of coaching, traversing the outer wilderness can be seen as a symbol or metaphor of traversing the inner wilderness. Harper talks about taking responsibility for our projections (p.196), and nature can show us where those projections and uncomfortable feelings or “growing edges” are. By immersing ourselves and our clients in nature, we allow nature to show us what we need to work through and take responsibility for, through the symbols we are drawn to in the natural world, and furthermore through allowing us to experientially learn in a practical way (Miles, p.50). This can be greatly supportive of coaching, as nature provides the context and the metaphors through which transformation can be expressed and can take place.

Connected to the point above is the idea of self-expression and purpose. When I feel connected to nature, I feel connected to my purpose. After I started spending more mindful time in nature, I realised I came away from these moments with clarity and insights into my situation and circumstances I was struggling with. Questions I had started to find their answers, or at least hints of pathways to be explored that would lead me to answers. I started regarding my time spent in nature as time spent having a conversation with my Higher Self, and I often journal those inspirations before I forget them while I am out there. I now understand that other cultures, particularly indigenous, have known about nature connection being a communion with the Self or aspects of Spirit. Many of them consider plants and animals as teachers, and have elaborate ceremonies where they enter into a trance, hallucinogenic or shamanic relationship with them in order to retrieve knowledge and healing. In Borneo, among the Dayak people who are animistic, the forest deities were offered gifts at the entrance of the forest, to ensure the wanderers were protected. Respect for the natural world and a sense of reciprocity characterize nature-connected cultures, and I believe it is because there is an awareness and understanding that we are nature, and therefore who we are flows from that source of life from whence the more-than-human flows also (the anima mundi, which contains the living intelligence and archetypes of the world) ; to be nature-connected is therefore to be fully oneself and in proper relationship to everything else in the family of life. Describing the work of Kaplan and Talbot, Miles (p.46) says spending time in wilderness, people start feeling a sense of union with something very important and larger than them. Harper talks about an experience of wholeness, sacredness and giving as well as receiving, while also describing an experience of what we could say was satori (seeing into one’s true nature) while paddling in Canada (p.196-98). In the Coyote’s Guide the ultimate goal is called the “Gift Principle” (p.31), a resonance with the natural world that leads to our own self-expression and offering of our unique gifts to the community. My own nature connection has led me on this path of nature-connected coaching with EBI, and I look forward to seeing where it will take me next. Similarly, when a client’s goals become aligned with their true nature, through becoming connected to greater Nature, this can be a profound experience of meaning and fulfillment in the life of the client, but also by transforming the world around them which responds in return.

This relationship with nature can support my coaching by enabling my clients to come back to themselves, to tap into their inspiration and their true gifts. I feel relieved and inspired knowing I don’t have to have the answers, I just need to trust and enable the process – the direction and answers are “inside” the client as well as “out there” in nature, we just collaboratively have to bring our attention to them and try them/take steps toward them. A client’s self-discovery, which is one of the goals of coaching, as well as their inspiration and creativity (to come up with their own solutions and evolution) are therefore greatly enhanced by enabling, encouraging and supporting as a coach the client’s own connection with nature.

[Greg McCarley]

Hi Lilia,

Your answer was so detailed! I had a hard time which part to really connect with because it was all so deep in thought. But I really enjoyed the part where you related nature with your connection with your mother. The expression of Mother Nature has some substance. Why else would that expression carry on and so many people adopt the expression mother nature. I feel nature is like a mother to us in providing all that we need. Its really cool to think as if nature itself is a family member and perhaps that is the key for the world of man to treat nature better. I also enjoy your ways of expressing connection with nature. Your nature walks or meditation sessions are inspiring and its something I keep saying I will do more of (like going to a gym). I really enjoyed the deep thought and can truly hear passion in your words. Look forward in reading more!

[Lilia Kapsali]

Thanks Greg, the Mother aspect was definitely an opening for me to relate on a deeper level, and as you point out it could be a universal opening for people since we all have had a mother at some point, and feel how imperative a bond with a mother is in the life of many beings, particularly mammals. However, I realise that other metaphors are present to each of us depending on who we are and our stage in life, and I think that’s what is so exciting about nature connected coaching, that it offers a wealth of metaphors to be explored in a session, depending on what the client offers up and resonates with. Thanks for your comment 🙂

[Julie Gandulla]

Hi Lilia,

Thank you for your post. It struck me instantaneously as heartfelt, honest, and thought provoking. I truly appreciated the layers of your thoughtfulness, and how you drew upon, and courageously shared your personal experiences. One point in particular stuck with me, where you touched on Harper’s point regarding responsibility for projection. Springing from this, you noted how the symbols in nature meet each of us where we are and on our own terms, allowing us that experiential learning that is just right for transformation. Your explanation of this made my mind immediately appreciate the fact that it seems that nature “intuitively” speaks to us in our own unique languages, forming that communication in our soul language that creates space for connection, healing, and becoming.

[Lilia Kapsali]

“nature “intuitively” speaks to us in our own unique languages, forming that communication in our soul language that creates space for connection, healing, and becoming” – yes, Julie! This is something I feel strongly. Thanks for teasing this out for me, as it is a central way in which I experience nature, as I wrote to Greg, through metaphors.

[Simka]

Lilia, I love the depth and thoughtfulness of your post. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. A couple of things really struck me…

I was fascinated by your description of the expansiveness of time that you felt in the Bornean rainforest. I’d love to hear more about what that was like, if you feel like sharing! I think I’ve experienced flashes of this quality of time myself, but really only fleetingly. I find it so interesting that you say it’s something you seldom experience on your daily walks. I’m curious if you have thoughts on why that might be, what the difference was in the rainforest that brought it on in such an exciting way?

I’m also really curious about your discussion of reciprocity, especially about how you relate it to spirit and the self. Do you think it’s something about the act/relation of reciprocity that sparks the sense of union, inspiration, self-epression and purpose that you (and others) describe feeling in nature? I’m also curious about how reciprocity looks for you. You describe trances, hallucinogens, and offerings as ways of establishing relationship and reciprocity with nature in other cultures, but if you have your own ceremonies or ways of being in relationship with nature I’d love so much to hear.

I also just wanted to say I appreciated your mentioning of the anima mundi a lot, I had completely forgotten about that as a concept. I find it fascinating that it dates back to Plato, which is some solid proof that even the ancestors of white western folks (both intellectual & blood-related) thought of the world as having a soul at some point – something we often ascribe only to indigenous folks!

[Lilia Kapsali]

Hi Simka, thanks for your really deep questions, which are stretching my brain cells a little bit right now haha.

It’s very hard for me to put it into words now, and I don’t have my Borneo journals here in the States with me, but I suppose a way to express it was that I lost the sense of time, or didn’t feel the pressure of it anymore. This partly had to do with the fact that I didn’t cook for myself in camp, and washing clothes by hand was a slow process that nevertheless did not matter too much since everyone was constantly dirty and stinky, so I think some of it was the relinquishing of daily life responsibilities. The other part was the removal from every day mundane reality for a matter of 7 weeks, and being thrown into a VERY different reality from the usual one, which I think shocked my brain a little bit into aliveness. Thirdly, this particular forest was very remote…I’m talking several hours spent driving away from the city in a car, then another couple in a four by four off-road and finally a motorcycle ride through mud and thicket to the outskirts of the forest. The remoteness, coupled with the complete absence of light pollution and distractions that usually regiment one’s day seems to put the mind into a slower state of being, though this is just an anecdotal guess. The reason why it is harder to do this with just daily walks is that I think it takes time to kick into that mode, and it is very difficult to do in a buzzing city with daily responsibilities and concerns.

Thanks for picking up on the reciprocity part. Without wanting to turn this into a philosophical treatise, I have an intuition that reciprocity is actually a central aspect of the functioning of nature, and not simply competition as we have been taught in biology in school. Gifting both resources and also one’s self is not merely something “nice” to do, but it is an expression of nature itself, which ensures ecosystems and relationships are maintained properly, and life goes on. I have recently come across Andreas Weber’s book Enlivenment, and to my great excitement he puts forth a view of evolution and life based on mutual exchange with the purpose of maintaining our shared life. I recommend it.

As for my own practices, I try to share both my knowledge and truth, as well as resources such as time, money and labour. Whatever I am responsible for, such as my family, dog, chickens and gardens I try to be very present for and give myself fully to, and I try not to hold back on sharing my creative gifts. In terms of coaching, I think gifting someone your complete attention and presence is a very powerful thing, and in my experience it is reciprocated with one sharing their full and deeper self. Same with the natural world. What about you, what do you think?

Yes, thanks for bringing up the dualism in Western philosophy and science. It really became more concrete after Rene Descartes and Francis Bacon, but from my understanding the separation between heaven and earth was a problem way back in the ancient times. Indigenous people throughout the world have practices specifically for uniting heaven and earth (matter/body and mind/consciousness), and from what I understand nature-connected coaching to be, this is a large part of what we are trying to re-discover and work with with our clients, because our most powerful insights and ways of being come when we bring those things together. Each person can find their own practices of doing this, but we are obviously all indebted to those still holding the wisdom to this day, who have lots to teach us.

[Simka]

Hi Lilia, equally thank you for your deep responses, I feel the stretch in return!

Your insight about your time in Borneo is so interesting. And wow, that sounds like an extraordinary experience! What kind of research were you doing there? I think that getting pulled out of daily reality is exactly it. I wonder if part of the reason that daily walks don’t quite bring the same experience is not just due to the time element but about how they don’t pull you out of everyday sensory realities. Your comment about everyone being dirty and stinky stuck out to me not just because it’s funny, but also because of how vivid and sensory that is. My sister recently discovered how wonderful gardening is, and she was talking to me this week about exactly this experience of time stretching for her in the garden, and it really struck me how vividly she was talking about the sensory aspects of her hands in the soil and the scent of it and so on. I’m reflecting on my own walks, and I realize that even though I try to bring in touch and smell into them, they just aren’t particularly out of the ordinary of daily life in terms of my senses. Sp I wonder if that’s part of what causes that slower state of being that you mentioned – just the wealth of sensory information that we don’t get in our daily lives, coupled with the totally different pace of tasks and routines…

Oh, WOW. I love what you say about reciprocity, and I totally agree that reciprocity is a fundamental part of nature. What you say reminds me so deeply of the themes that weave through Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass – I read that a few months ago and I swear it completely changed my life. There’s a beautiful recent episode of Emergence Magazine Podcast where she discusses the idea of reciprocity in the gift economy through describing gathering serviceberries. It’s so funny that you mention Andreas Weber – I didn’t know who he was until this week, but on Tuesday I was at a monthly art-science event where he was one of the guests for the session! He actually lives in Berlin, and he’s was really friendly. Anyway, Enlivenment sounds great, I’ll definitely check it out.

I love your perspective on reciprocity in the realm of coaching. I definitely agree. I think when you meet somebody with deep, powerful listening and reflection, the kind of trust they often return is an incredibly precious gift. Curiosity, empathy, humor, and willingness to learn are all gifts that I would like to bring as a coach as well.

Yes, I think you’re right – the separation of heaven and earth in Christianity, and later the materialism of science (oh boy, Descartes has a lot to answer for) seems to be a huge influence on the dismissal of the idea of the world as sacred. And yet, the alchemists were deeply religious Christians, and still alchemy was fully dedicated to the sacredness of matter. There’s some deep, deep beauty in alchemy, I think. It’s roughly understood now to have been ‘early science plus belief in magic’, but I think there’s a lot of richness in including it alongside indigenous practices of uniting heaven and earth. It’s an especially good example of how ‘indigenous cultures = good and nature connected, white/european/western culture = bad and not nature connected’ is just another problematic dualism, you know? I fall into that trap way too often, I think, and especially as a white person I feel a responsibility not to lean purely on the practices and worldviews of indigenous folks for my personal ‘cleansing’ of the nature/human dualism. That said, we are, exactly as you say, so indebted to those who are still holding the wisdom and I have so much gratitude for folks like Robin Wall Kimmerer whose generosity in sharing that wisdom is enormous!

Anyway, I love the image of nature-connected coaching as a guidance towards uniting heaven and earth. I’m grateful to you for this beautiful, deep, inspiring discussion!

[Lilia Kapsali]

Simka,

this is a very stimulating conversation for me, and could talk for ages! I think you’re onto something with the sensory aspect…which begs the question: How can we bring our clients’ attention to the sensory realm and the body during a coaching session? My practice client today told me that closing her eyes during the surrender breath exercise made her realise how much sharper her other senses became..something as simple as that! I was struck by the reality that so many of us are disconnected from our senses, and an activity such as gardening or even cooking a wholesome meal can be a powerful nature-connection exercise!

As for the Serviceberry, I read that article on Emergence magazine by Kimmerer and loved it too! Yes, she expresses reciprocity so amazingly! I am still reading Braiding Sweetgrass but will let you know what I think when I do…Incidentally, my opening to this world of connection was through Carl Jung, who was deeply interested in alchemy, and whom some consider the grandfather of Ecopsychology. He certainly had lots to say about the separation of Heaven and Earth, and some of his students, particularly Marion Woodman, picked up that thread you talk about regarding the rejection of matter (which she considers the feminine principle) by Christianity, and tried to reclaim it in her own psychology, bodywork and spirituality. Maybe we can continue the discussion in the next forum, and…in the cafe! xxx

[Greg McCarley]

I absolutely love how they used John Muir in the wilderness as a healing place article. Muir was like the ideal person when it comes to connecting with Nature. He was the original nature guru for the National Park System. Being connected to Nature is a complicated and yet simple task. Complicated because people don’t really know what that means. Easy for those who dare to try. I truly believe nature is essential for us to learn and grow. Like plants, we grow over time and stay connected with the earth. We humans are no different from that. We currently use recreation as a way to channel our happiness and there’s even proven therapeutic practices when using nature as well. Outside of the physical benefits of exercising in nature and breathing clean air. There’s a psychological benefit from it as well. I like how they mention in wilderness as a healing place on page 45 they talk about people experience an increase in self confidence and a feeling of tranquility. Speaking from personal experience, I have to agree with that assumption.

I love being out in nature. Nature has always given me a sense of calmness. Regardless of where I’m at, I can always find ways to connect with nature. Connecting with nature can be done in so many ways. I don’t want to categorize being one with nature has to be through meditation and etc. You can be connected just by breathing its air or just watching a sunset. Its that calmness that arises within is what I call being connected with Nature. I use to sit on the beach on the west coast. That was my nature connected spot. I enjoyed watching the sunset, smelling the sea water, and hearing the waves. It always brought a sense of calmness in my life. My flowed like the waves did and slows down like the sunset.

Being connected with nature is extremely helpful in life coaching. Life coaching is being a guide and as we know guiding in smooth waters is always easier than guiding in choppy waves. Nature brings that’s sense of calmness to us all and coaching will be enhanced when we have that calmness. I like to believe that nature solves most if not all problems in some form. It brings happiness to us in more ways than one. By sharing an experience with someone in an unfamiliar environment, it tends to stick longer. By attending the meetings more and learning more, I’m grasping this concept of guidance and its quite extraordinary! We as people are always striving to learn, even if we don’t want to learn. Nature is the ultimate classroom and in this classroom we have to listen and feel in order to pass.

The fundamentals of coaching is to guide people too the answers themselves. It is key to guide people to the answers and not tell them the answers directly. This allows more acceptance to the issue and stronger engagement. The more I learn about coaching, the more I learn how to guide and lead in different ways. This in fact is helping me guide myself to my own answers. Nature definitely helps with the clarity of answers when guiding people. On page 11 in the coyotes guide they mention finding peoples edges. Once you find their edges you can start to pull them to a new edge. The key is to stay ahead of the people you guide and then stretch their edges to new orbits (Pg 12 Coyote Guide). This is so true. I myself like to push to my uncomfortable zone when it comes to life. This is where I learn the most and become more enlightened about life and myself. I feel most people are similar to me, but just don’t trust themselves and need guidance.

[Erin Leigh]

Lilia, I was touched when you mentioned how your mother’s death led you to find a deeper level of connection and healing through nature. What I saw in your words was a beautiful rebirth of who you are that came about from the pain of death and choosing to find and heal yourself in your mother’s absence…and ultimately that new-found connection to nature blossomed into a new purpose for life. Thank you for sharing your story!

[Lilia Kapsali]

Yes Erin, that’s exactly it- you know it’s funny because it took me years to understand what you expressed so succinctly in your comment, and sometimes I wonder how much trouble and loneliness the presence of a guide would have saved me, by helping me frame the experience in such helpful terms…what a wonderful word “rebirth” is, right?! Thank you for seeing me, Erin 🙂

[Erin Leigh]

Lilia, I am just good at summarizing LOL…it was your work and willingness to turn a tragic thing into a beautiful story :). So thank YOU for letting me see you! I must say I have had those same feelings of loneliness and wondering if a guide would have saved me and I think that is what led me to coaching. But honestly, when I think back to those moments I wanted saving and had to save myself because there was no one else to do it for me (as you did!), THOSE were the moments of real strength where real learning happened and prepared the way to help other people without having to save them too. I love this program! Having each other’s backs in this process is really helpful.

[Simka]

I’m touched by this tender discussion of wondering about/wanting to be saved by a guide. I think you’re so right, Erin, that the real strength and learning happens in saving yourself. In fact I wonder if one person can ever really ‘save’ another, at least emotionally – maybe the only thing that’s truly possible is to facilitate someone else saving themselves (otherwise perhaps it devolves into a kind of unhealthy codependence?). That seems to me to be the most powerful thing about guiding; just like you noted, Lilia, as a guide you never have to have the answers, you just hold the space for their own self-discovery.

Which is none of it to degrade the wondering if a guide would have saved you. I’ve felt that way too in hard moments. But I’m just musing… to me it sounds like nature acted as your guide in those moments, doing exactly that thing of holding space for your self-discovery. I think it’s kind of a beautiful idea – that we might have clients who want us to save them, but instead of trying to swoop in and be a savior, we can reciprocate with nature by holding space for our clients’ saving themselves, in exactly the way nature held space for us when we needed it most.

[Lilia Kapsali]

Hi Greg,

I loved when you wrote this: “You can be connected just by breathing its air or just watching a sunset. Its that calmness that arises within is what I call being connected with Nature.” – I could sense the peace and tranquility just from your words and pictured sitting on the beach with my feet in the sand…I enjoyed your reflection about guiding from that baseline of peace. I also really enjoyed reading about how you are going deeper into what guiding means, and how listening and feeling are central to it, and was excited to read you are finding the way to your own answers through nature and the course. Thanks for reminding me about finding people’s edges and trying to pull them to new orbits – beautifully said! I had that experience with my practice client today, that her own answers were leading her somewhere where she was reluctant to go – I could sense the resistance, and remembered that I don’t have the answers but can trust nature, so I suggested a wander….nature ended up giving her exactly what she needed, and I was grateful that all I had to do was to invite her to take that one step and hold space. Look forward to reading more about your experiences guiding as they unfold!

[Erin Leigh]

Greg,
“Complicated because people don’t really know what that means. Easy for those who dare to try.” Yes! I love that this ties into your last paragraph of finding the edges and stretching through the uncomfortable-ness to new ways of being and enlightenment. I also found interesting the polarity in the spectrum of emotion you presented, calm that nature provides on hand and the adventure at the edges on the other. I wonder if you drew a diagram that depicted this relationship what it would look like?!

[Simka]

Hi Greg,

It’s cool to hear your enthusiasm for everything you’re learning coming through! Your description of sitting on the beach particularly resonated with me. I know that sense of calmness that you mean (and I miss it a lot now that I don’t live anywhere close to the ocean anymore). I like how you say that you flowed like the waves and slowed down like the sunset. To me that sounds like how Michael was describing dropping into baseline and how you get assimilated into it, similar to neurofeedback – your internal frequencies end up synced up with the external frequencies.

I’m curious if you have other spots where you live now where you can find that calmness too? Personally, sometimes I struggle with dropping into a new baseline, especially because I make deep connections with particular places, like the ocean on the West Coast. But once I give it some time and finally do manage to drop in with a new place, it’s such an incredible feeling! I wonder if that resonates with you as well.

[Julie Gandulla]

EBI Foundation 1 Post

What does it mean to be connected to Nature, can be both a simple and a complex question.

It asks me to consider the quality of my attunement to nature through my senses and awareness. Whether if on walks, or while driving, or while sitting in a café, I am aware of the layers of existence going on around me and how they are affecting me. It also asks me to consider my attunement to my internal nature, through how I listen to and believe my body, mind, and spirit. Whether I actively hear how my skin feels, how I speak to myself, or what my deeper needs are saying.

It makes me consider the fact that we are all connected to Nature, whether we acknowledge that connection or not; because we come from Nature, nature resides within us, and it can consequently follow that we ourselves are nature.

It beckons me consider the idea of connection. More specifically, that connection can imply relationship in some form. The strength of relationships seem to lie on a continuum from weak to strong, depending on various internal and external factors that playout in our lives. And yet some relationships, no matter how weak they become (particularly those with family, with origin) can exist and affect us even if they lay far in our past, or deep in our subconscious. Those lost or untended relationships can still have the capacity to create waves potentially producing a void, the feeling of loss, or any number of consequences. And so it seems with Nature, that no matter how removed mentally or physically we become waves continue to pulsate up from our “roots.”

To take the thought even further, it is in those foundational relationships that it is easy to assume and take for granted the immortality of the connection. Failing to maintain it, we suffer from the loss, even if it is not ever a truly fatal one, longing for that connection and all that comes with it. This highlights the importance of not taking for granted and maintaining those crucial, foundational relationships. And just as each individual relationship is unique, I dare say so too are its boundaries. By maintaining a foundational relationship’s growth and vitality, we can help ensure that we have every opportunity to learn and explore the depths of that connection.

Finally, it stands to reason that what it means to be connected to Nature is as unique as the individuals that enjoy that connection. Nevertheless, healthy relationships all seem to have a few requisite components such as mutual respect and mutual care. Amongst other things, without mutual respect authentic listening could not transpire, and without mutual care authentic coexistence could not transpire. Without either, a relationship erodes into pinball game where either party finds themselves bouncing against existence…alone.

I believe this to be true with Nature. This armchair philosophizing applies to connection with Nature most pointedly, as it is a familial, foundational relationship we are weaned from and not taught to recognize. And if we take that reasoning one step further that we are all irrevocably connected to Nature, thereby all connected to one another, and thus Nature itself…we arrive at the idea that we are creating relationship in a ripple effect, with the universe from the outer rings to the inner circles of self, and vice versa. And at its core is respect and care.

[Julie Gandulla]

I wanted to add an additional piece to my post…

This understanding (of what it means to be connected to Nature) will support me as a coach by encouraging me to be aware of the dynamics that lie at the root of this connection. Reminding me not only of its layers and depths, but also its structure and interwoven make-up. But most importantly, it will support me as a coach by inspiring me to approach Nature Connected Coaching from the baselines of respect and care. Respect and care for nature, my client, myself, and each relationship.

[Lilia Kapsali]

Wow Julie, what a post! I really really enjoyed reading your musings around relationship – so much richness there. Your entry point was the body and the senses, which I really appreciated, and your personal relationship with yourself…you then spoke about personal relationships with family and friends, and then you expanded the ring to include Nature, concluding, as John Muir did, and many other people before and after him that “everything is hitched to everything else in the Universe”. I really loved how you placed mutual respect and care at the core, and thought this sentence was profound: “Amongst other things, without mutual respect authentic listening could not transpire, and without mutual care authentic coexistence could not transpire. Without either, a relationship erodes into pinball game where either party finds themselves bouncing against existence…alone.” I am interested in hearing more about how you will weave your philosophy into your coaching, and forefront that awareness of the dynamics of connection.

[Greg McCarley]

Julie,

I love the analytical view on this response. Its such a unique and creative way to breakdown on the question being asked. I really like the part where you say “we are connected with nature regardless if we acknowledge it or not. This is so true! We are bored from nature and its basically and fundamentally in our dna. We all have a connection to nature and overtime we just lose that connection like we lose connection with our parents as we get older compared to as children. Its interesting to watch people grow into nature more or grow out of nature more. I do believe there’s a science to this question and breaking it down so analytically like how you did is key to finding some amazing answers. Great read!

[Erin Leigh]

Julie,
“we are all irrevocably connected to Nature, thereby all connected to one another, and thus Nature itself…we arrive at the idea that we are creating relationship in a ripple effect, with the universe from the outer rings to the inner circles of self, and vice versa. And at its core is respect and care.” I appreciate this truth and the gentle reminder that relationship with self is in the inner-most circle and ripples out to affect all of one’s connection and relationships within the Universe.

[Kendy (xe/xem/xyrs)]

Julie, I love how you make note that we are all connected to Nature, because we are Nature!
I often think about this little nugget of a fact and wonder “if we are nature, and our nature is to create, then aren’t the things we create part of the natural world by default?” It’s a rabbit hole that I’m wiling to talk more about any time!
The Nature in us, that we are, is there no matter what. Even if we do not acknowledge it.

[Simka]

Julie, I love that you bring up connection as a spectrum. I think people have a tendency (I certainly do) to think of things in binary ways – either I’m connected to nature or I’m not – but as you so eloquently point out, that’s not true. I love the image of our relationship as roots, that continue to exist whether or not they feel lost or untended. There’s such a tenderness and gentleness in that, which feels really important. Especially in the case, as you mention, of losing our sense of connection or failing to maintain it, and the grief that comes with it, this gentle idea of rootedness in relationship feels like it can go a long way towards healing the loss. Thank you for your reflections!

[Erin Leigh]

When I think of nature connection, immediately what comes to mind is “As is Above, So is Below, As is Within, So is in the Outer”. I am a microcosm of the macrocosm and as such I see my own reflection of my inner world reflected in my reality. Often these reflections arise for me as metaphors of nature.

I went to the ocean late last night with my dog Sam and had a bit of a wander. My intention was to experience and be open to whatever Nature wanted to share with me that night. The sky was black with only a few pinpoints of stars scattered throughout. The wind was strong, with gusts that I leaned into so as not be blown backward and occasional droplets of rain fell against my face. The ocean looked like a black mass of void, and out of the void waves were forming. These waves were only visible because they became even darker lines before crashing into white spray that spread out over the dark gray sand.

I felt into baseline and noticed who I was and what I was feeling in that moment, scanning my body and letting go of what was not mine and gathering my energy inward and downward. When I was ready and at baseline I invited the energy of the place to join mine and allowed the space for us to be connected. I noticed the changes that occurred in my body. First aware of the solidity of me and the tumultuous waves crashing against my energy field. Then I imagined I was a wave and noticed how it felt to be pulled by the moon crashing over the shoreline until gravity pulled me back into the void. I stayed here awhile. Suddenly it was suggested that I go deeper into the sea, into the void beyond the wave line. So I did and noticed the gentleness beneath the surface of the water, going with the flow and even though the forces of the moon and gravity were present, my experience was dramatically different.

Eventually I felt called back to myself and began to ground into my baseline again gradually becoming the very small me on a very long, dark and remarkably windy beach. I asked what the meaning was in this for me and again noticed the waves forming and cresting and becoming darker before crashing into white, just like when right before a situation comes to a resolution it seems the darkest before illumination and release. Also, it occurred to me that this same water was just moments before a part of the bigger void where the experience was calm and nurturing and to that place it returned. The void to me for this moment was the sea’s baseline and the waves the ever changing environment interacting with the forces around it.

I thanked the sea and elements and stars for guiding me that night and called back my dog who had all but disappeared in the dark and went back to the car where I thanked myself for wearing my warmest jacket and turned on the heat.

Today when I was connecting with a client, these images and these realizations came to mind in relationship to what she was experiencing and I was able to share with her what the sea taught me which resonated with her and she made connections of that experience into her own life. So not only was I given a new way of looking at baseline, it was given to also assist another.

So that is how I experience nature-connection in one instance.

[Lilia Kapsali]

What a beautiful story, Erin! I found your imagery so evocative and striking, and I loved that moment of embodied connection with the water, and how you use your imagination so powerfully to enter the experience of the Other. I am wondering how, besides sharing, you incorporate this skill into your coaching, and do you think it is possible to facilitate or hold the space for a client to enter into this sort of nature connection?

[Erin Leigh]

Thank you! I have found two things with nature, the first is the recognition that I am experiencing nature through my own senses and therefore it is my sensory story, the second is that I never know who else is meant to benefit from it until that person shows up haha. In my guiding sometimes it will be shared through meditation so the person is experiencing it themselves and I interpret nothing, sometimes the words seem more important and will evoke the client to come up with a metaphor that they tell to me. It has taken lots of time getting to know and trust the nature connection for myself FIRST for me to even put this into words…and that is part of why I was so touched by your story as well, because OMG there are other people out there that do this tooooooo!!!! Oh and now, that is why I am in this course, to learn how to teach other people how to do the nature connection thing for themselves.

[Lilia Kapsali]

Thanks for sharing some of your process! I love this phrase “sensory story”. I love how you use a mixture of meditation, story and metaphor to connect both with nature and your clients, and resonate with what you say about trusting and being open to seeing where the nature connection takes you both. Really happy to have met you too, and everyone else on this course! 🙂

[Greg McCarley]

Erin,

Man oh man! Did your response remind me of the good ole days in Oregon. Every almost every weekend I escaped to the coast to surf and relax. I also meditated and hit my baseline as well. The ocean for me has and always will be my sweet spot when it comes to connecting with nature. What you described was exactly my description on so many levels. Where you went is a place I have grown attuned to and why I was constantly pulled to the ocean always. Oregon has a different vibe from the California coast line and I felt more connected even on cloudier days and colder winds. IT was like a inner description of me a the time and when the sun popped out it was life screaming at me! Love the response and look forward in reading more :). Greg

[Julie Gandulla]

Thank you Erin. Your gift for description and of sharing story is greatly appreciated. The powerful connective experience was tangible, and a profound example of what nature-connection can be (not only for yourself but also for your client). Moreover, the layers of that dynamic where you began your post noting the macro/micro layers to existence, helped to solidify the experience of being pulled by forces, the peace beneath the waves, and going with the flow. However, what was most impressed upon me was the your experience with baseline truly showing how profound it can be.

[Simka]

Erin, thank you for taking us on this descriptive journey of your experience! I particularly love the trust in yourself, your senses, and your intuition that I hear in your writing. I really resonate with your sensory connection to the ocean. Your description of diving into how it feels, not just ‘how it would be like’ but how it feels in terms of energy or the senses, to be another being, is really beautiful. There’s moments when I quite spontaneously get pulled into this as well (oddly enough, usually focused on insects – maybe because their realities seem to be in some ways so similar and in other ways so alien to our own). It’s a beautiful experience, but your writing inspires me to do it more intentionally as well.

[Simka]

I’m sixteen years old, sitting under a tree in the New Mexican mountains, damp and cold and hungry, picking the bark off a stick and waiting for sundown. I’m out here to do a quiet sit, fasting and sitting alone from dawn till dusk. But I’m doing a terrible job, and I know it.

I just can’t get my head to shut off, my senses to open, my body to be still. I feel sullen, fidgety, on the verge of tears. I’m supposed to be out here having some profound experience as the others at camp no doubt have had, but instead I’m angry at the proof that I wasn’t ready for this. I’m surrounded by nature, and I can’t connect with it.

No surprise, really: I grew up with immense anxiety, the youngest and most troubled member of a family consumed by the beauty of intricate ideas. My anxious brain was constantly striving to prove myself, get it right, be on a par with the others.

Although we spent a great deal of time in wild, rural, and natural spaces, it is interesting to realize that I have vanishingly few childhood memories of a sense of ease in or connection to nature (though the memories I do have of such an experience stick out more vividly than any others). I know there were many more times where I enjoyed myself or found beauty outside, but my focus was nearly always on doing something, knowing something, or achieving something in those natural surroundings.

Very occasionally, the door to real connection opened: in a thunderstorm, an intense bond with a Ponderosa pine that gave me shelter; the exuberance of a tree’s experience of summer reaching me through the pulsing scent of orange blossoms late one night; the alien universe of wasps unveiled to me by my entomologist great-uncle on a trip to Tel Aviv. But the door always closed again, and I couldn’t find the key to unlock it — leaving me disappointed, confused, and angry like I was on my quiet sit as a teenager.

In my early twenties, I began to address my anxiety through somatic practices. Yoga, bodywork, breathwork, body scans, and more opened up a world of simply being that I hadn’t previously known existed. Through these practices, I learned to let go of analysis, explanation, and striving, letting my curiosity roam through noticing and greeting instead of parsing and fixing.

That was exactly my experience in those rare, fleeting moments of connection with nature as a child: a deep, wordless sense of being, of mutuality, unfurling in me. Except now I could return to it, again and again, through my somatic practices. I began to feel and attend to the subtleties and nuances of my sensations, alarm calls, longings and needs, rhythms — not through words, but through awareness and presence.

I learned to drop into connection to the nature of my body. My anxiety faded; I stopped having panic attacks, stopped taking medication.

***

In his classic and influential work I and Thou (1923), Martin Buber proposes two attitudes of existence: the first, ‘I-It,’ is an attitude of objectivity, of experience or use. The second, ‘I-Thou,’ is an attitude of relation, a wholeness with a ‘Thou.’ He describes this latter attitude as follows:

“But it can also happen, if will and grace are joined, that as I contemplate the tree I am drawn into a relation and the tree ceases to be an It…. The tree is no impression, no play of my imagination, no aspect of a mood; it confronts me bodily and has to deal with me as I must deal with it — only differently. One should not try to dilute the meaning of the relation: relation is reciprocity.” (p. 58)

It is this relation and reciprocity described in the I-Thou attitude that I believe is at the heart of nature connection. Indeed, Young, Haas, and McGown describe nature connection in terms of relationship in Coyote’s Guide: “When we say connection, we mean a familiarity, a sense of kinship, just as we experience with our human family. The goal includes knowledge and skills, but ultimately relationships restore our bond to nature” (p. 30).

So what is that ‘joining of will and grace’ that elicits this state of relation? I believe it has to do with letting go of striving towards knowledge and control. In a recent episode of For The Wild Podcast, Dr. Natasha Myers talks about an ‘ethic of not knowing’ that allows us to open up our hearts, minds, and sensorium to other sensibilities and ‘ways of doing life’. By laying aside our colonial preconceptions about what can be knowable, she says, we can focus our attention beyond what we’ve been taught matters, and fully be in the presence of another being.

This doesn’t have to be a conscious, brainy practice, however. My fleeting childhood experiences of true connection with nature were all prompted by a momentary lowering of my defenses against the unknown: the intense power of a thunderstorm; simple boundless joy of summer scents; a new country and new relationship with a relative. Although I normally clung to knowing, prediction, and analysis as methods of maintaining a sense of safety through control over the unknown in my environment, these pieces of wildness nudged me into letting go, even if briefly, and enter into immediate, timeless relationship.

Similarly, when I later learned through the practice of yoga to drop in to the unexplainable, irrational, unparseable realm of my own body’s nature, I began to inhabit myself, partnering with my body in a kinship and healing that went far deeper than words.

When we enter and, with that joining of will and grace, sit with wilderness — be it bodily or external — we experience a wholeness that, as Steven Harper notes, “is perhaps the most healing experience available to us” (The Way of Wilderness, p. 196).

***

As I’ve gotten older, my ability to connect to the wildness of my body has extended to ease in connection to external wilderness, too. Over the course of the weekend intensive, I was often surprised by how easy — and how deeply fulfilling — it was for me to open myself to nonstriving wandering or simple sitting; I hadn’t tried these things often since I started somatic practices. Gone are the fidgeting and waiting and shame over my lack of expertise. But it’s not that my tendency for getting lost in my head has simply vanished. The exercises of the intensive reminded me that stepping out of knowing and into relationship keep me grounded and, more than that, continually renew my wholeness. It’s a continual process of “facing the shadow of wild nature at its source,” as Harper puts it, which allows me to reclaim and reintegrate the incomplete and dark sides of my being (p. 194).

So how can all of this support my coaching? The short answer is that I’m not yet sure. I hesitate, somehow, to say that I would like to explicitly bring the kind of healing I myself experienced to my clients; after all, I’m not a therapist. That said, only a tiny minority of my experience of somatics was given to me in the context of therapy, and I know firsthand the healing power simply being in wilderness can have, when one feels invited to lower one’s grip on control and knowing. So it seems to be more a question of holding space for that invitation, while weaving techniques and practices of connection, both somatic and external, into my coaching, as a way of empowering and guiding my clients towards wholeness.

What I do know for sure is that my ability to coach effectively relies on my being whole, which in turn relies on my ability to be in an I-Thou relationship with my environment and clients. I find it telling that Jenny Rogers points to Carl Rogers’ concept of ‘unconditional positive regard’ towards the client as the cornerstone of successful coaching (Coaching Skills, p. 24). Rogers was deeply influenced by Martin Buber, comparing his person-centered therapy to Buber’s I-Thou relationship due to the reciprocity and mutuality of connections with clients. Just as I hope to show my clients ways to become whole through somatic and nature connection techniques, I’m recognizing it’s vital that I continue my own nature connection practices as a coach to stay in a state of humility, intentionality, and reciprocity with myself and my clients.

[Lilia Kapsali]

Wow Simka! I so appreciate you bringing all this thought and heart to the discussion…thank you so much for sharing your story and weaving in all this wisdom…there is much I want to unpack and reflect on, but I feel to just simply honor the journey you take me on with your words.

I loved this phrase “a momentary lowering of my defenses against the unknown”…as well as your image of the thunderstorms, which create a strong opening towards the world for me too. You say you are not sure how your experience and connection can help support your coaching, but in the next sentence you write with such power and conviction: “So it seems to be more a question of holding space for that invitation, while weaving techniques and practices of connection, both somatic and external, into my coaching, as a way of empowering and guiding my clients towards wholeness.”

Lastly, I want to highlight three words you used: “humility, intentionality and reciprocity” – I’d love to hear more about them and their embodiment in your coaching, if you feel like sharing.

[Greg McCarley]

Simka,

I love the3 fact you related this entire experience to different times of your life. Its as if nature connection has always been a journey and struggle and you still learning constantly. I feel as some level we all can relate to what you were thinking at different times of our lives. I personally am constantly learning, thinking, imagining, and so much more on what exactly is purpose and how do I achieve it. The example you gave right at the beginning is such a struggle for me sometimes, especially when I have lots on my plate. Sometimes I cannot connect with nature and that alone is frustrating me to the point where in naturally inhibits me to connect with nature. Like a self full filling prophecy. I am try and ponder some of my childhood memories and see if I can recall my connection with nature and compare them to now and see where I end up! Great response and look forward too reading more personal experiences. Greg

[Simka]

Thanks for your reflection Greg! I know what you mean about the self-fulfilling prophecy. I’d love to hear about if any memories came up with regards to your relationship with nature as a child vs now, if you feel like sharing!

[Simka]

Lilia,

Thunderstorms are so powerful, aren’t they?! I definitely connected to them through that summer camp, and now where I live there are massive thunderstorms every summer. I love that time of year so much!

Anyway, you’re so right, thank you for the reflection. I think I started out feeling unsure, and figured it out through writing it. I’m really curious to see how that weaving together of the different parts ends up looking for me (and for everyone else) over the course of the year.

As for humility, intentionality, and reciprocity… I think that’s my way of being in an I-Thou relationship. If that requires stepping into the unknown – and I believe it does – there has to be a willingness to shed what you think you know, to be present, to both give and take in ways that are sometimes wordless.

So how will that show up in my coaching? I think it’s a matter of letting go of trying to control things, and stepping into the moment with a client with the acknowledgement that it takes trust from both sides to do that. I think it’s about invitation rather than instruction, about making room for my client’s intuition as well as my own, for being wrong and allowing my client to be wrong. More than anything, I think it’s about saying hey, this is a journey we take together, and we can’t know exactly where it will end up, but things will shift along the way if we’re willing to attend to them.

I don’t know if any of that makes much sense, but it’s an exploration 😉

[Lilia Kapsali]

I loved how you described your approach to coaching.. “there has to be a willingness to shed what you think you know, to be present, to both give and take in ways that are sometimes wordless.” How beautiful and courageous too…thanks for reminding me to step into the unknown and trust the process.

[Julie Gandulla]

Thank you Simka. How you approached this post allowed me to go on a journey with. Not only by sharing in your own relationship with nature through various times in your life, but also by acknowledging that the connection to nature (even when we desire it passionately), it does not always flow fluidly. It made me think that many of us struggle with that connection for a variety of reasons; analysis, goal orientation, fear, culture, etc. Moreover, when you noted a transformation when you dropped into your body in kinship and began partnering with body you added another layer of our human dynamics. Do you feel at this juncture you were more in harmony with the body and did this include the mind? This juncture in your post made me consider mind, body, spirit and their “internal” relationship, and how they engage with the external world/nature…and ultimately where this boundaries meet or maybe blur.

[Simka]

Thank you Julie! I’m glad you connected with it. I definitely did – and still do – feel more in harmony with my body; I can hear its needs better (for example I realized how often ‘I want coffee’ is actually ‘I want water’ – and sometimes vice versa!). When it comes to mind, mine gets preoccupied with consequences and starts spiralling around in the future. What connection to my body or to nature does is pull it back to the present moment. So for example if I’m trying to figure out what to do about something, the question stops being ‘what will happen?’ and turns into ‘what do I want right now?’ – which is often a question my body helps to answer. Does that make any sense? I guess a better way of putting it would be that there’s better harmony between my body and mind in the present moment since I started partnering with my body.

I’m really intrigued by your bringing in the internal relationship between mind, body, and spirit! It reminds me of a passage from Braiding Sweetgrass where Robin Wall Kimmerer talks about how in her indigenous (Potawatomi) tradition, one can only really “understand” something when one understands it through all four ways of being: mind, body, spirit, and soul. I’m so curious what you think about how those aspects of self engage with the external world and how the boundaries meet & blur, if you feel like sharing some thoughts!

[Julie Gandulla]

Absolutely Simka! Thank you for your amazing and thoughtful engagement. In all honesty I am somewhat speechless and in awe about interconnectedness on the individual level and beyond… at least in a lot of ways. It helps me to think of mind, body, spirit (I am sorry I am not familiar with the distinction between soul and spirit…but love to learn so feel free to open doors for me), internal and external, but at the core of it I find my gut saying that each of these catagories are training wheels for my comprehension. Like how you learn to drive a manual, “here’s the gas pedal, break pedal, clutch, gear stick, etc. Each one effects the other in order to drive the car. Similarly, with the mind, body, and spirit. Each one seems to affect the other. However, unlike the car the degrees of those affects are unfathomable. The more we learn about them the more we realize how overlapping and immense they are, and the distinction between each of these aspects becomes increasingly difficult to delineate. Sigh…so my questions create more questions, but one thing I know for certain is that the process of this inquiry inspires great appreciation for existence in me. 🙂

[Kendy (xe/xem/xyrs)]

I love this I-Thou relationship. I have not heard it explained in this way before!
I appreciate and am inspired by the way that you have articulated yourself, your experience, where your hope to land in this piece. It makes me happy to hear that over the weekend of the intensive you found it easy to wander!

[Erin Leigh]

Simka,
I really appreciate the layering of your writing, logically spiraling to the core message of that you want to convey. I resonate with your description of your teenage self! Her tenacity and drive and desire to do it (and it could be so many things!), but do it her way and in a way that honors her own way of being. What I saw in your process was this beautiful need to understand and explore your inner wilderness before conquering the outer wilderness. I see the way that you experience the nature of the external mirrors your internal nature. In this way, I see your intuition guiding your entire process and learning to trust it brings connection to the exterior wild and real physical change. Thank you for sharing in such a clear way not only your strengths but also your struggles, it helps to visualize what you are conveying in a very real way.

[Kendy (xe/xem/xyrs)]

Initial Post (sorry it’s late!)

To be connected with Nature is to see ourselves as Nature. Life takes time, and Nature never rushes. It understands that all things will come with time.
As a child, my family vacations usually consisted of some type of camping. Which, as an adult, I love. However, as a child I found myself frustrated with why I couldn’t experience something different like a city excursion, or a hotel once and a while. It was always a campfire and a tent. I didn’t know it then, but this instilled deep knowing in my soul that I would always be held by the natural world when the human world would inevitably fail me.
When learning how to “adult” I find myself on the trail talking to my dog and the trees about what I need to do. When considering major life changes, I find myself floating down a river or sitting creek-side listening for the “right” answer. When in need of deep emotional healing I find myself exhausted, on top of a mountain, surrounded by nothing by the breeze you can only feel from the summit. When struggling with change I find myself gazing at the moon, hearing its gentle reminder that change is the only true routine there is. This relationship, though it has remained unconscious until recently, was instilled in me as a child and has been a constant & reliable relationship I have returned to for guidance time and time again.
I am reminded of poems by Mary Oliver then thinking about what Nature Connectedness means. Two quotes, from two of her more well-known poems come to mind: “You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.”, from Wild Geese; and “I do not know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day.”, from The Summer Day. These quotes, to me, mean that we are only animals and we find ourselves in Nature. The experience of experiencing Nature can heal us and be a prayer without words if only allow ourselves a second to be still and known.
This relationship with Nature and recognizing that I am Nature is what I want to share with other people in my coaching. I hope to be able to guide others to be able to recognize the nature in themselves and build a relationship that they can return to time and time again as well. It was clear during our first weekend intensive that I would learn how to share this and constantly be gently reminded that I am on the right path.

[Lilia Kapsali]

Hi Kendy,

I loved this phrase: “I didn’t know it then, but this instilled deep knowing in my soul that I would always be held by the natural world when the human world would inevitably fail me.” It sounds like you had to experience something different such as living in the city to circle back to what you have always known, which is the value of nature in your life. How awesome to have had those experiences camping with your family. Really love the Mary Oliver quotes too, I discovered her after moving to the USA and she really was nature-connected, the way she paid attention to the smallest things and the slow pace of her poems. Thanks for sharing!

[Greg McCarley]

Hi Kendy,

Your response is another great example of personal experiences and struggles we call life. I enjoy reading about how you may go to nature in hopes to find more enlightenment. Sitting on the river or mountain top can always give some form of clarity when it comes to life questions. When I travel and go hiking, I always run into someone who is sitting in a spot and just staring off into the distance. I ask myself what are they thinking? where are they from? and what kind of answers are they receiving! IT makes me realize that so many of us are thinking and striving to be connected more and reading your response reaffirms that for me. I look forward in reading more of your posts! Greg

[Simka]

Kendy,

In reading your beautiful descriptions of finding guidance, comfort, and healing in wordless relationship with Nature, I am reminded of Julie’s post, and how she described connection with nature as a relationship which is always there, even if unconscious. Sounds like you do a lot to tend that relationship, even if you haven’t been conscious of it until recently. How wonderful to become aware of it, and realize it’s always been there!

This quote resonates with me deeply: “experiencing Nature can heal us and be a prayer without words if only we allow ourselves a second to be still and known.” This is something that I’ve only recently been learning in a deep way for myself, and it really does feel like mending a relationship that had gone many years untended.

Thank you for sharing with us. And thank you for the inspiration to finally read some Mary Oliver…!

[Erin Leigh]

Kendy,
Thank you for being you! I am reminded of on day one of Foundation One when Michael was talking about Nature Connection, and finding connection wherever one is, be it a city or a suburb or the wild, it is always there waiting for us to connect, patiently waiting for us to ask and learn. I appreciate the beginning words of “To be connected with Nature is to see ourselves as Nature. Life takes time, and Nature never rushes. It understands that all things will come with time.” I too have found nature to be most patient, both the inner nature of soul as I struggled to find what it means to be human knowing there are many paths that are right for many people but wanting to know what is right for THIS soul, and the external nature that holds the answers to the deepest questions and needs when one asks and open to receive the answers. I see you asking the questions of nature, and nature being there with an answer, constant, true and never rushing.

[Greg McCarley]

Overall,

Ive learned that everyone will and always will have unique and different perspectives. Its amazing how writing a response compared to saying a response can bring such details. I personally enjoy talking and in person engagement. Though, writing has been a growing passion of mine and I have been journaling consistently for nearly a decade now. Reading the responses to the question is a almost a art and a story. Everyone is not only answering a question, but they’re writing a story of their life and how they think. I really am learning more about deep connection and how others perceive this connection. I can’t wait to learn more about everyone and connect even further with everything!

[Julie Gandulla]

Summary Post:

Time and space. Those are the two words that come to mind when I think of summarizing my take-away of this module. Like a huge tree, being connected to nature seems rooted in our very existence, and yet simultaneously requires looking after, in order to nourish the quantity and the quality of that relationship. The health of that connection has a profound effect on us, mentally, physically, spiritually; not unlike the symptoms any animal would suffer who has been totally removed from its ecosystem. Further, the connection itself appears to manifest like different languages, as infinitely diverse as the individuals in existence, times of life or even day, and space in which they occur. And incredibly, beautifully, nature speaks them all. With this in mind, as well as the pointed gifts of each of my fellow cohort’s contributions and the content of Foundations 1 and 2, I look forward to creating a North Star for my coaching. At its core this North Star embraces a very broad view of being connected to nature. Evidenced by the tell-tale signs of: nature being involved and the client “showing up,” while fostering that glue for all healthy relationships…respect and care. With these basic ingredients I look forward to creating opportunity for enduring nature-connectedness for my clients and subsequently myself. I cannot help but feel that by coaching nature connectedness, I will always be enjoying the growth of my own relationship with nature, and will have the good fortune to humbly bask in the “rebirth” of my client’s as well. The infinite possibilities of these dynamics is truly exciting and inspiring.

[Kendy (xe/xem/xyrs)]

In Summary:
This experience is off to an awakening start! The weekend of the intensive I found myself actually engaged with something for the first time in awhile. This feels like the path for me and like something I can grow in. It’s already pushing me outside of what has become comfortable for me and reminded me of valuable things that I find comfort in. One of my biggest take-aways is this sense of capablility. I often find that I doubt myself and my abilities. I feeling very capable in this and supported by our small cohort community! I’m looking forward to getting to meet some other cohorts as well, but y’all will always be my number 1s!
It’s also been an interesting experience to be accountable for “homework” again. School, homework, and classes were my life and my identity for many years of my adolescence; I didn’t like it, but I knew how to do it and do it well. So entering back into this world of learning something new in a classroom-like setting again, and this time by my own choice. I own that I haven’t done great in this first round and have purchased a paper planner and sat reminders on my phone to have better time management again.

[Erin Leigh]

In Summary:
I appreciate the asking of us to write about nature connection in this forum because I feel like there have been deep and meaningful connections within the group that will be valuable as we “find ourselves” as coaches. Reading the responses have been helpful as it provides for a different way of hearing the person’s thought process.

After Foundation’s One and this forum, I have gained a great appreciation for the Sacred Questions as I applied them to myself as I was reading and also an appreciation of how Nature Connection is so unique to each person. I feel like I beginning to get an understanding in a broad sense of nature connection beyond my own which is one of my main reasons for taking this course! So good job EBI, I am looking forward to continuing to grow in this understanding with my supportive cohort.

[Lilia Kapsali]

In Summary:

What I am taking away from this module is the delicate art of holding space and directing attention to the natural surroundings and the client’s senses, inner world, words and energy, and trusting nature to provide a container, metaphors and circumstances for wellbeing and healing. This can only come through my own continued nature-connection and development as a person and a coach (practicing self-severance…).This first module has also been a confirmation that this is my life’s purpose (for now) and I am looking forward to exploring and refining further what my vision for this work is. I have enjoyed and learned from hearing everyone else’s experience and approach to nature connection, and I am genuinely excited to see where this path will take everyone, and the unique ways this work will be applied through the conduit of each personality.

[Ivy Walker]

testing

[Simka]

I realized I never made a summary post for this module, so here it is at last:

What I’m taking away from this module is that nature connection is a practice of stepping into relationship and reciprocity with other beings, which requires letting go of control and getting comfortable in the unknown. This module and this entire discussion deepened my understanding of what it means to be in relationship, whether that be with a tree, the land itself, or a client. It also helped me understand how this is a way of being rather than a thing you do, and that it’s an extraordinarily powerful partner when it comes to coaching and guiding. Finally, by reflecting on my own experience, I’m incredibly excited about bringing in the body as a way of being in relationship with self and how that might be woven into my coaching further down the line. It all just serves to confirm that I am where I need to be in this program and on this path!